hot for food

I eat fake meat… so! Look I’m really not one for imitation vegetarian/vegan food. I also think its deceiving and mega disappointing when a food item is called something it really isn’t. Even worse when vegan/vegetarian meat substitutes or imitations taste like paper, cardboard, rubber or some other man made material that doesn’t resemble food. I don’t eat meat and sometimes, as much as I DO NOT want to eat meat, well I kinda want to eat meat. Make sense?! But I won’t and luckily Gardein has come out with a line of perfect replacements for those moments of weakness. The products are all non-GMO and organic.  They taste amazing. And they are starting to pop up at grocery stores everywhere. Just recently we received the expanded line of products in Canada that had previously only been available south of the border. Honestly, Gardein makes it easy to become vegetarian without compromising taste, satisfaction, and health. I mean, just like meat, I wouldn’t live on this stuff. It’s still a processed food, but nothing is slit in the throat or submersed in feces to get it to your plate. Just saying. Check out these deceiving vegan meals I made using Gardein, and another incredible product, Daiya.

Beef & Veg Stir Fry
Ingredients: Gardein Homestyle Beefless Tips, various veggies, stir-fried in sesame oil, ginger, garlic, hot sauce and tahini, on a bed of soba noodles.

Meat & Cheese Pizza
Ingredients: Gardein BBQ Pulled Shreds, Daiya Mozzarella Style Shreds, gluten free pizza dough, tomato puree, yellow bell pepper, green onion

Chicken Finger Dinner
Ingredients: Gardein Chipotle Lime Crispy Fingers, homemade maple mustard dip, broccoli, smashed sweet potatoes with nutmeg and basil.

Tell me your mouth is watering?! Even my carnivorous man friend I occasionally feed was all over that Beef & Veg Stir Fry and he can hardly tell the difference between Daiya and real cheese. So go ahead and fake it, even for just 1 day a week. Besides these products have far far far less saturated fat then the real thing. Meat and cheese might just be the death of you… but not me.

Ever since I’ve turned vegan you know I’ve been trying to experiment with versions of mac & cheese. I tried one recipe from VeganYumYum and another from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. One was tofu based and the other blended from raw cashews. They were pretty good… at the time. But now I’ve perfected the recipe and I feel this tastes much better. It’s milder in flavor and quicker to make… which is the whole point of mac & cheese, isn’t it? I feel as though this is a perfect vegan mimic of my fave mac & cheese (made from real cheese) that I USED to eat at The Drake. If you’re not vegan, you must try their dish! If you are vegan, you must try my Easy Pea-sy Mac & Cheeze.

Ingredients:
1 package Rotini noodles
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp each of lemon juice, olive oil, white miso, nutritional yeast, tamari
finely chopped cilantro
1 clove of garlic, minced
black pepper

In a dish mix together the ingredients for the sauce including tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, white miso, nutritional yeast, tamari, cilantro and garlic. Rinse peas under water to defrost. Once pasta is cooked and drained, add in your peas and half the sauce. Mix to coat noodles. You can add more sauce as you like, but you’ll probably find you have extra.

I prefer the texture of rotini noodles (and of course I used brown rice pasta) because macaroni tends to feel worm-ish and slimy. The measurements I outlined make more than enough for 4 servings of pasta. If you want to make more you can just double the recipe. I had left over sauce and I find it also makes a great dip for crackers or veggies!

An obvious pair…films and food. I always watch a movie at the theatre with popcorn in hand. It just feels right. But I do think that hot dogs and pizza and hamburgers is going a little over board though, when you’re at the movie theatre. But at home, well, feel free to devour whatever you please.

FilmsWeLike sent me a copy of their latest Mid-August Lunch (a film by Gianni Di Gregorio) to review. It’s a lovely little film about food, friends, family, and love. The food… Italian. The friends… elderly women. The family…a middle aged man and his mama. And the love… is what happens when you combine all three. So naturally, I decided I had to watch this move over an inspired homemade hearty meal of my own. Vegan lasagna! I’m sure Italians would kill me for putting vegan and lasagna in the same sentence. So be it.

Mid-August Lunch and my Vegan Lasagna made the perfect Sunday afternoon. However, I only wish I had a bottle of wine to go with them. After watching the star of the film, Gianni, casually down glass of wine after glass of wine – making alcoholism look so luxurious and appealing – I too had the urge to get wasted in the hot afternoon sun. But alas, no wine and no hot sun over here!

I love film, but I’m no critic. But what I enjoyed most about Mid-August Lunch was watching the characters really take pleasure in food and wine throughout the movie. I related even more when one of the characters in the movie couldn’t eat cheese! Well too bad she didn’t have my recipe for this Vegan Lasagna.

Ingredients:
(of course, the veggies and noodles can be changed to your liking)
brown rice lasagna
zucchini, shredded carrot, chopped spinach
vegan parmesan

For Tomato Sauce:
1 can whole tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
fresh basil & parsley
fresh or dried oregano
salt & pepper

Saute onion in some olive oil until soft. Add garlic and cook for a couple more minutes. Add tomato paste and herbs, then the whole tomatoes (with juice from can). I blended the whole tomatoes first, but that’s optional. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low heat for 30 minutes or up to 1 hour.

For Bechamel (White Sauce):
1/2 cup silken tofu
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tbsp. tahini
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp corn starch

Put all these ingredients in a blender and combine.

For Tofu Ricotta:
1 block extra firm tofu, crumbled
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
fresh basil
salt & pepper

Crumble the tofu into small pieces (resembling ricotta cheese) with your hands. Add in the remaining ingredients and combine.

It takes some prep time to get all 3 of these components ready so you could make both sauces and the tofu ricotta ahead of time. Saute zucchini, shredded carrot and spinach if you’re using fresh spinach in a pan with a bit of olive oil. You can use frozen spinach, just make sure you thaw and drain out the water first. You’ll need to pre-boil the brown rice lasagna according to the package or you can save time by using ready to bake white lasagna. Assemble your lasagna in a greased baking dish. Lasagna can be assembled however you want really, but here’s what I did. Pour some tomato sauce to coat the bottom of the dish first, then layer noodles, tofu ricotta, spinach, some white sauce, some more tomato sauce. Then noodles, tofu ricotta, a layer of the zucchini and carrots, remaining white sauce, some more tomato sauce, noodles, and then remaining tomato sauce. I topped it with my pre-made vegan parmesan which is always in the fridge (ground raw cashews, nutritional yeast, celtic sea salt). Bake at 400 F covered with foil for 40 minutes. Then a few minutes under the broiler to brown the top.

Thanks to Troy at FWL (www.filmswelike.com) for sending over the film and inspiring a hot for food recipe!

I’ve never been a fan of heavy cream sauces. But that’s because before my vegan adventure something like this would have killed me.  Today I accomplished a delicious white wine cream sauce with mushrooms that was rich, creamy, and has no dairy at all!

The secret… cashew cream! I finally did it. And it’s not as complicated as Tal Ronnen made it out to be in his cookbook The Conscious Cook. He says to soak the cashews over night. ugh why would I? That’s the whole reason I never got around to make this in the first place. So I just went for it, and it worked just fine rinsing them a bit and blending right away. Done my way, we’re looking at a time span of about 15-20 minutes to make this meal, compared to hours!

I just made enough cashew cream for this dish, but you could make more and store it in the fridge. It’s just whole raw cashews and water blended together – strained, if you don’t want little bits in it. Making dinner my way in the kitchen means I didn’t measure anything… sorry!

White Wine Mushroom Cream Sauce

Ingredients:
Whole Raw Cashews & cold water
Olive Oil
Onion
Garlic
Portobello & Cremini Mushrooms
Dry White Wine
Vegetable Stock
Fresh Basil & Parsley
Baby Spinach (optional)
Salt & Pepper

I used about 1 cup of whole cashews, and enough water in the blender so the cashews are just covered. Blend until smooth. Saute chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil until soft. Add some salt and pepper, and mushrooms and cook uncovered until all the water is absorbed. Then add some basil, parsley, white wine and some veggie stock – about 3:1 wine to stock. Simmer until reduced. Have your pasta boiling at this point. Stir in the cashew cream and baby spinach, allowing it to wilt. The cream might start to thicken, so I just added a bit more wine to thin it out. Toss with your cooked pasta and top with more fresh basil, parsley, and fresh pepper to serve.

Did you see my recent post about making a vegan mac & cheeze? OK, well I tried another recipe, just for fun. It’s from FatFree Vegan Kitchen. A blog I am frequenting now and highly recommend. The first recipe I tried was actually called a vegan alfredo sauce and while I originally disagreed, I take it back. This second version of mac & cheeze from FatFree Vegan Kitchen is more like real mac & cheese. It’s even yellow like KD… but WAAAAY better! It’s also a very smooth and creamy sauce. The first recipe from VeganYumYum had raw cashews in it that didn’t quite blend smooth in my meager blender. While it was still yummy and I’ll probably use that sauce again, I like how this one has no chunky bits. So definitely give it a whirl. It’s tasty and cheezy!

Ok, I can get used to this vegan thing now that I’ve made and devoured a couple of delicious staples in life. Made into vegan friendly versions in the hot for food kitchen were chocolate ice cream and macaroni & cheese. Yes, you heard me right!

I can safely say I’ll never eat real ice cream again now that I’ve tasted this creation by SweetOnVeg. Jennifer, you are a genius! Go check out her recipe after you feast your eyes on my photo (although her photo is way prettier).

It’s ridiculously easy to make this, and it’s even perfect for people who eat raw. I saw this recipe a while ago, but it took me a while to figure out what I needed to buy… RAW CACAO powder. As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s not the same as COCOA powder. I found Navitas Naturals at Whole Foods, so it’s definitely around and abundant – now that we all know what a superfood REAL, RAW chocolate is.

Next up, Mac & Cheese. I was never a fan of Kraft Dinner. Unless, of course I was drunk… come on, we all do it! But I love CHEESE, and I can say with 100% satisfaction this recipe is killer. Proof… my boyfriend, who would live on KD if he could, said it was so delicious and will definitely eat it again… and again, and again. So HA!

It’s from VeganYumYum, another new fave blog that I recently mentioned. It’s in Lauren’s new cookbook (that I also mentioned), but she was kind enough to post it online, for all to make! It’s amazing. She calls it alfredo, but after looking up a number of vegan mac & cheeze recipes, this seems pretty close. I used macaroni noodles so in my books, it’s mac & cheeze. Check out the recipe here. Again, the hot for food photo is not as pretty, or should I say “hot”, as the original.

I’m a big believer in “use what you got” when it come to making meals. Typically, I’ve always got cans of beans, and different varieties of brown rice pasta or other grains and lentils. So here’s a couple meals I made in the last 24 hrs. There’s no real rhyme or reason to them… well, actually, the reason is I’m hungry!

Spicy Chickpea Linguine

Brown rice linguine, chickpeas, spinach, shallot, white wine, garlic, tomato paste, green onion, basil, cilantro, parsley, chili flakes, S&P, vegan parmesan (combined ground raw cashews, nutritional yeast, sea salt)

Warm Lentil Salad

Green lentils, spinach, corn, apple, green onion, ground coriander, nutmeg, fresh cilantro, cucumber, apple, salted almonds

This isn’t the hardest thing in the world to make, but the reason it deserves a post is because my carnivorous boyfriend thought it was DELICIOUS! And there’s NO meat in this sauce. I also used brown rice pasta, which I have mentioned before, should be your new best friend. It’s just as satisfying in taste and texture as white pasta, but you won’t have all the bad side effects of white refined pasta. I will never go back! Make this to impress your meat loving friends, or if you’re cutting back the meat, try this as one of your vegan/vegetarian meals of the week.

Ingredients:

1 pkg Yves Italian Veggie Ground Round
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped spanish onion
2-3 garlic cloves
1 cup chopped portobello mushroom
1 cup dry red wine (or half wine / half veggie stock)
S&P, oregano, basil, red chili flakes, parsley to your liking
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 can diced tomatoes

If you can, process the celery, carrot, onion and garlic in a food processor so its finely chopped. Heat some olive oil in a sauce pan and add in this mixture. Cook down until it’s soft. You can add salt and pepper at each stage of cooking this sauce – as you’ll probably be tasting it throughout! Add the wine/stock and allow it to simmer until its mostly evaporated, at this stage you can add in the herbs/chili flakes that you want. Next add in the chopped mushrooms, tomato paste, and diced tomatoes. Keep simmering, and you’ll be able to tell when this is nearly done. In the last 5 minutes of cooking crumble in the ground round and combine. More S&P to taste and serve with your favorite noodles. It’s always best to combine  your noodles with sauce in the pot, ensuring each bite is flavorful and for presentation you can put another dollop of sauce on top.

I’ve craved phad thai for the last week or so. I have no idea why. Actually Indian food too, but those recipes seemed more complicated. I made a vegetarian phad thai (with tofu and egg) and added shrimp after for my animal eating counter part. Honestly there’s so many different versions of phad thai out there that I just tried to make my own based on all the other recipes I looked up. It’s good enough for home made. It’s not excellent though. So I am on a mission to perfect phad thai! The best I’ve ever had is at a Asian comfort food restaurant in Oakville called Celadon House. Holy shit, this is the bestest phad thai known to man…. I dare you to say otherwise! I need to figure out how they make it.

“My Pad” Phad Thai

Ingredients:
1/2 pkg of Flat Rice Noodles
1/2 block of Extra Firm Tofu
1/4 cup chopped Red Onion
2 Garlic Cloves, minced
1 cup Carrots, julienned
1 cup Red Pepper, julienned
1 cup Bean Sprouts
1/2 cup chopped Green Onions
1/4 cup fresh chopped Cilantro
1 Egg
2 tbsp Sesame or Peanut Oil
3 tbsp Roasted, chopped unsalted Peanuts

For the Sauce:
1/4 cup Soy Sauce (low sodium)
2 1/2 tbsp Lime Juice
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tsp Chilli Sauce
2 tbsp grated or finely minced fresh Ginger

Combine the ingredients for the sauce first and set aside. Chop tofu into thin strips and fry in a non-stick pan with a tablespoon of canola oil until crispy on the outside, set aside. Scramble the egg in the same pan as the tofu and set aside. Boil your water for the noodles and cook the noodles as per the instructions on the package. They don’t take long so they can sit aside to drain while you finish the stir fry.

It’s easiest to prep all your vegetables ahead of time. Heat a wok or large sauté pan with 2 tbsp of sesame or peanut oil and stir fry red onion, garlic, carrot, and red pepper for a few minutes until onions are soft. Add the noodles, tofu, egg, half the green onion and half the cilantro tossing to combine everything. Then add in the sauce and cook for a few more minutes coating everything well. To serve, sprinkle with roasted and chopped unsalted peanuts, more cilantro and green onion.

I’m definitely not one of those no-carb eating chicks. I am a carb-o-holic! As I’m sure most women are…

Pasta, though, I have a love/hate relationship with. I LOVE to eat it in all its starchy glory, but I also hate myself after I eat it. It doesn’t make my tummy feel very good and I wake up the next day looking puffy. Does that happen to you? Not to mention it has little to no nutritional value and a REAL serving of pasta, based on the information on the package, is fit for a rat.

ANYWAY, there are many alternatives to traditional white pasta. And NO Whole Wheat isn’t going to do. Whole Wheat pasta is disgusting, dry, and unsatisfying. My new favorite is Brown Rice Pasta, particularly the brand Tinkyada. Organic and naturally gluten-free, it has the look and texture of white pasta, but you can eat a more realistic portion of it with the same amount of calories as a mini portion of white pasta.

Some other ideas I have seen recently and was curious to try is using eggplant as a pasta noodle, as well as Spaghetti Squash. Both very low in calories, high in fibre and can easily absorb and take on the flavours and textures of traditional pasta dishes.

Here’s the Eggplant Pasta dish I tried. Food Networks Alton Brown made this on The View.

Overall it worked and looked like pasta. However, the salt you need to use to extract the liquid from the eggplant, stayed in there even after I rinsed it quite well. It was WAY too salty. Almost inedible. I ate it once and had so much left over that I had to throw it out. So while Eggplant Pasta might be a healthier option for many reasons, it’s probably canceled out by the fact that the salt involved probably exceeds your daily limit. I don’t really like the texture of eggplant in general, so I probably won’t try this recipe again to see if I just need to rinse off the salt even more.

Spaghetti Squash was something I just saw in the grocery store. Conveniently it even had a sticker on it explaining how to cook it and a recipe option! I just decided to follow the cooking directions and make up my own pasta dish with what I had in the fridge.

Using 1 whole Spaghetti Squash, you cut it in half (rather difficult!) and scoop out the seeds. You can bake it for 45 min at 350F, microwave it for 10-12 min, or boil it in 2 inches of water for 20 min. I did one half in the microwave and the other I boiled, to test what would work best. I think I ended up over boiling the one half and it got a bit mushier than the microwaved half. In this instance I would go quick and microwave the damn thing!

So scooping out the squash flesh I was kind of disappointed because it didn’t look like spaghetti! It looked like mashed squash. Been there done that. Anyway I pan fried some chicken while the squash was cooking and used the same pan, with all the brown bits left in it, to sautee mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes which I combined with some pesto. Once everything was done I added in some grated parmesan. Ta Da!

It sort of looked like a mushy angel hair pasta dish. I was not convinced.

But once my boyfriend and I started it eating we really liked it! It totally had the texture of angel hair, and we felt the same comfort and satisfaction you get from eating a pasta. The seller is that my boyfriend had seconds… of squash…he eats white things and meat. So Spaghetti Squash should probably be called Angel Hair Squash, but try it and cook it with your favorite pasta pairings and you won’t be disappointed!